1. Alice Mary Robertson was an American educator, social worker, Native Americans' rights activist, government official, and politician who became the second woman to serve in the United States Congress, and the first from the state of Oklahoma.
22 Facts About Alice Robertson
1. 2.
Alice Robertson was known for her strong personality, commitment to Native American issues, and anti-feminist stance.
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Until the election of Mary Fallin in 2006, Alice Robertson was the only woman elected from Oklahoma to Congress.
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Alice Robertson was born at the Tullahassee Mission in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, to missionaries Ann Eliza and William Schenck Alice Robertson.
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Alice Robertson's parents translated many works into the Creek language, including the Bible.
6.
In early life, Mary Alice Robertson was self-taught under the supervision of her parents.
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Alice Robertson started working as a clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC.
8.
Alice Robertson returned to the Indian Territory and taught briefly in the school at Tullahassee.
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Alice Robertson returned to the Indian Territory, and established the Nuyaka Mission.
10.
Alice Robertson taught in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, where she had charge of a Presbyterian boarding school for Native American girls.
11.
Alice Robertson was appointed by the BIA as the first government supervisor of Creek Indian schools, and she served from 1900 to 1905.
12.
Alice Robertson was next appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as the United States postmaster of Muskogee, Oklahoma, serving from 1905 to 1913.
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Alice Robertson was the country's first woman postmaster of a Class A post office.
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Alice Robertson was elected by the 2nd District of Oklahoma as a Republican Representative to the 67th Congress, narrowly defeating the incumbent William Hastings.
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Alice Robertson was the first woman to defeat an incumbent representative in a general election.
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Alice Robertson served from March 4,1921, to March 3,1923, but was unsuccessful in running for reelection in 1922 and was defeated by Hastings.
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Alice Robertson was the second woman to hold a seat in Congress, after Representative Jeannette Rankin from Montana, who served from 1917 to 1919.
18.
Alice Robertson was the first woman elected to Congress after passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote.
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Alice Robertson opposed feminist groups such as the League of Women Voters and the National Woman's Party.
20.
Alice Robertson voted against bills funding maternity and childcare on the grounds that they were an unwarranted governmental intrusion on personal rights.
21.
Alice Robertson retired to run a 50-acre dairy farm.
22.
Alice Robertson died in Muskogee, and was interred in Greenhill Cemetery.